`Reachev And Gorbagen` Don`t Faze Swiss

That`s how one wall poster which graced (or defaced, according to taste)

this city described the summit.

The enemy is within the walls, complained the poster, and Swiss soldiers have nothing left to defend but bottles of champagne.

To one whose French is only passing fair (or a bit worse than that), it was impossible to figure out whether there was some serious political message to this poster or just good old-fashioned Swiss fun, the existence of which is doubted by many.

Whichever, Geneva seemed to take in stride its moment in the historical

(but not natural) sun (there was nothing but clouds).

One reason was that none of the official summit events were in the city`s delightful downtown along Lake Geneva and the Rhone River. The meetings, and even most of the press briefings, were up the hill a mile or so.

Another reason is that there is always an international presence here, with some 14,000 persons working for the United Nations and other

organizations.

Many of these diplomats and foreign international bureaucrats pay no taxes and have ample expense accounts, which helps explain why low cost is not among Geneva`s charms. Swiss watches and chocolates are a bargain here; taxi rides and restuarant meals are not.

On the journalistic front, reporters who knew they could not get the important news tried for the unimportant news, and sometimes tried to make it seem important.

After White House spokesman Larry Speakes announced a blackout on substantive news from the meetings between President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, it was trivia time at the news briefing.

One reporter, noting that Reagan had gone coatless in the cold for a few minutes, asked whether the President had had his long johns on for the summit. The President, Speakes assured everyone, was wearing his ``customary underwear.``

Speaking of clothing, one of the burning (freezing?) questions of the day seemed to be which world leader could best brave the cold without coat or hat, even though both Reagan and Gorbachev had red noses (though Speakes insisted the President did not have a cold).

After Gorbachev noted Reagan`s coatlessness before their first meeting, it was duly noted that both world leaders were coated.

The coat contretemps reminded a veteran foreign correspondent of an earlier summit between Presidents Richard Nixon and Charles de Gaulle. ``Nixon had his coat on until he saw that De Gaulle didn`t. Wham, Nixon took his coat right off,`` the reporter said.

Not everyone here was on official business, or was even a semi-official observer or would-be influencer. Katie Uston and Andy Kircher, for instance, were just playing hookey.

The two 20-year-old political science majors are taking their junior year at the Luxembourg campus of Miami University of Ohio, and they just decided to take the train to Geneva.

Without any credentials or official identification they managed to talk their way into the White House press briefing area and to attend some press conferences.